Syndicated story by PesaCheck.

This Facebook page using the identity of Kenyan comedian Jemutai, and offering ‘sure’ betting odds in her name, is FAKE.

The page, whose username is Jemutai Churchill, asks anyone interested in betting to send a WhatsApp message to 0716373292. PesaCheck searched the number on TrueCaller and discovered it is registered under ‘Jemutai Churchill’.

Nonetheless, the page with the claim mimics the comedian, whose real name is Stella Bunei. All the photos shared on the page belong to Jemutai, and it has 49,324 likes and 49,978 followers by the time we published this fact-check. However, the first hint that the page could be a fake account is that it sells football odds in most of its posts.

PesaCheck searched the keyword ‘Jemutai’ on Facebook and discovered another Facebook page with 1.2 million followers. After reviewing the Facebook page, which goes by the username ‘Jemutai Comedian’, we found the page we are fact-checking is among two flagged as fake accounts.

“The person running this two accounts blocked me so I can’t continue reporting the pay [sic] kindly don’t be conned by sijui (I don’t know) ODDS. Whatever is being posted on them I have no control over it, Someone is working overtime to destroy my brand,” Jemutai Comedian cautioned.

To assure her online followers that ‘Jemutai Comedian’ is her official Facebook page, the comedian promised to go live the next day at 11 am. And she did on 13 August 2021, at 9:51 am.

“I was to go live at 11, but according to how my schedule is going I will be busy at 11 so nikaamua kuifanya (I decided to do it) now so that I can go for a shoot at 11. I was to go live at 11 to just verify that this is my real account, sio ile ya (not the one called) Jemutai Churchill. Guys, please don’t be conned uyo si mimi (that is not me), this is my real account,” Jemutai said on Facebook live.

Whereas the fake page, Jemutai Churchill, was created on 2 April 2018, the comedian’s official page, ‘Jemutai Comedian’, was created on 29 October 2015.

The second Facebook page that has been flagged as fake by the comedian is this one with a similar name- Jemutai Churchill. Unlike the other fake page, this one does not advertise any betting odds and only shares Jemutai’s photos. This page has 48,220 likes and 171,388 followers by the time of publication of this fact-check. It was created on 26 December 2018.

A screenshot of the second Jemutai Facebook page that was flagged as fake by Jemutai’s official Facebook page.

PesaCheck has looked into a Facebook page purporting to belong to Kenyan comedian Jemutai and offering football fans ‘sure’ betting odds and finds it to be FAKE.

This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.

By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.

Have you spotted what you think is fake or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.

This fact-check was written by PesaCheck Fact-Checker Naomi Wanjiku and edited by PesaCheck Chief Copy Editor Rose Lukalo. The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck Managing Editor Enock Nyariki.

PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.

PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.